The Little Drummer Girl

George Roy Hill, better known for combining light comedy with drama as in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, here adapts John Le Carr's best-selling suspense novel THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL. It's set in the early 1980s, when Israeli intelligence was still reeling from the Olympic massacre of 1972 and attempting to infiltrate Palestinian terrorist groups. To achieve this, Kurtz (Klaus Kinski), a Mossad operative, tries to enlist Charlie (Diane Keaton), a well-known anti-Zionist actress. The plan works when she falls in love with Joseph (Yorgo Voyagis), an undercover Israeli agent. In a complex story ranging from England to Greece to Lebanon, she is accepted by a terrorist cell as the lover of the leader's recently deceased brother. The leader and main bomb maker, Khalil (Sami Frey), wants her to smuggle a bomb into Germany. Contrary to many other films within this subject matter, the Palestinians are not depicted as one-dimensional madmen. Their cause, and their long years of suffering in the refugee camps, is presented in a way that makes Charlie's ambiguity about the moral position of both sides entirely believable. As Charlie, Keaton, celebrated for her comedy work with Woody Allen, gives a vivid portrayal of the malleable actress whose political passion leads her into the dangerous world of Middle East politics.